


Snow Problem

by WhatWouldLilyDo



Series: OMGCP Winter Extravaganza 2017 [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: AHL!Nursey, Christmas Eve, M/M, NHL!Nursey, Snow, flight cancelled, frogs senior year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 19:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13197165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatWouldLilyDo/pseuds/WhatWouldLilyDo
Summary: “Hi!”Dex stared at Chowder upside down from his place on the floor. “You’re supposed to be on a plane.”“Flight’s cancelled. No flights in or out of Boston because of the blizzard.”Dex's plans for a quiet Christmas at the Haus with his boyfriend get disrupted by a freak snow storm.ForOMGCP Winter ExtravaganzaPrompt 17: Flight Cancelled





	Snow Problem

The slam of a door jerked Dex awake, and he slid off the couch with a crash. 

“Hello?” Nobody else was supposed to be in. The juniors had taken the Amtrak to Philadelphia, hoping that there was little enough snow to get to Tango’s house in Camden. Chowder and Farmer would be on a plane to San Francisco by now, and Nursey’s didn’t land for another two hours. 

“Hi Dex!” 

Dex frowned. He only knew one person with a North Californian accent, and yet he still spent a few seconds trying to match the voice to Ransom or Holster. “Chowder?” 

“Hi!” 

Dex stared at Chowder upside down from his place on the floor. “You’re supposed to be on a plane.” 

“Flight’s cancelled. No flights in or out of Boston because of the blizzard.” 

Dex’s automatic reaction to the word ‘blizzard’ was to roll his eyes. “You’re so Cali, C. It’s just a bit of snow.” 

There was a snort from behind Chowder. Farmer appeared, pink-faced, but stripped down to a baggy shirsey and a pair of opaque tights. She stepped over Dex, and pulled the curtain open, to reveal… 

White. 

The LAX house looked lost in smoke. Snow whipped up from a drift where the soccer team’s attempt at an igloo had stood the day before. “No flights in or out,” Farmer repeated. 

Dex’s eyes tracked the tide of snow. It swirled around like a typhoon, and debris flew past the window in the gale. Now he paid attention he could hear the crackle of wind, almost as loud as thunder. Samwell was shrouded in white darkness. 

“Tango texted me,” Chowder said. “They're stuck, too. The train just stopped in the middle of nowhere and they were told they can't go anywhere.” 

“Anyway. I need a coffee. It’s fucking freezing out there.” Farmer nudged Dex with her foot so that she could get past him. 

“There’s pie cooling,” Dex told her. “Rhubarb. Save some for-” 

The words stopped in his throat as their words finally sank in. 

“Wait. No flights in? But- Fuck.” 

He groped around for his phone, and pulled it out from between two cushions on the couch. 

> Derek Nurse - 3 missed calls  
>  SMH Cs and Foxtrot - 19 new messages  
>  \+ 4 notifications
> 
> **Derek Nurse**  
>  1:14pm  
>  Nursey: flight cancelled i’ll let you know when i can get one  
>  Nursey: none to providence either  
>  Nursey: ...none to anywhere in new england jfc

“But… Logan is supposed to be good at clearing snow.” 

Chowder frowned at him. “Dex. I know you have more experience with snow than me, but even I know you can’t clear snow properly if it’s _still snowing_.” 

Dex tucked his knees up to his chest, and tapped through his other messages - Foxtrot letting him and Chowder know that their Amtrak had stopped near the CT-NY border; Tango asking if he was okay, and what was happening with Nursey’s flight; Bitty telling him to stay safe and suggesting that he and Nursey rethink how they were going to get to Providence for the Falconers’ game on the twenty-seventh. He deleted some spam from his email, and with his notifications all cleared, he opened his favorite contacts and hit call against the first name. Nursey picked up before the second ring. 

“Hi, babe.” 

“I’m sorry,” Dex said. “I was asleep. I didn’t realize—” 

“Shh, it’s okay. I figured it was that. At least, I hoped not even you would go out in this weather. You might have been trying to do a Zimmermann and check on your frogs.” 

“Shit. The frogs.” Dex could have kicked himself. He was supposed to be a captain, and yet he had forgotten to check on the youngest of his team — some of them staying away from their parents for the first time over the holidays. Chowder tapped his arm and shook his head. He held out his phone to show a string of messages from all the underclassmen staying in dorms over the holidays. “Oh. Oh, okay. This is why they voted you the C,” he told Chowder. 

“What?” Nursey asked. “They didn’t vote me the C, everyone already knew I was leaving.” 

“Not you. C. He checked up on all of them. I’m just the pretty face for all the people who say goalies can’t be captains.” 

“But you’re so good at being a pretty face.” 

“And Whiskey’s there for talking to refs.” 

“Babe. Baby, you’re a good captain.” 

Dex frowned at his knees. “I didn’t call to talk about me being insecure.” 

“No, you called to find out if I can get a flight.” 

The blizzard continued to billow outside, but it felt like the world was on pause. “And?” 

“I’m trying my best.” 

Dex’s heart sank. Their five days together was rapidly looking more like four, and with Christmas Eve being the next day, it might be difficult to get a flight at all. “It’s okay. I understand if you can’t. Are you at your sister’s?” 

“I’m at the airport.” 

“Detroit?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You should go back to Leila’s and keep checking from there. An airport’s no place to spend the holidays.” 

“I don’t even celebrate Christmas.” 

Dex worried his hand through his hair. “I know, but it’d still be nicer for you to have more time with her than to stay in an airport overnight hoping a flight might come up. And if the snow’s this bad, we don’t even know if one will come up soon enough.” 

Nursey hummed. “I miss you.” 

“I miss you too. And I love you and don’t want you to make yourself miserable trying to catch a flight to me.” 

“Ugh.” 

Dex smiled. At least no matter the distance between them, Nursey’s hatred of flying remained constant. “Don’t worry about it. Please. I love you, and if flights can’t happen I’ll see you when I come to you in February.” 

“Hmm. I love you. I’m gonna- go.” 

“Okay. Drive safe, and love to Leila.” 

* * *

> **Derek Nurse**  
>  11:53pm  
>  Dex: They’re not always so charming…  
>    
>  Dec 24, 2017 12:27am  
>  Nursey: LOL  
>  Nursey: I’m sorry  
>  Nursey: tell me how long they last  
>  Dex: Are you kidding me?  
>  Dex: I’m not listening to them have sex  
>  Dex: Headphones firmly on.  
>  Nursey: lmao ok  
>  Nursey: g2g goodnight ❤❤❤

* * *

Dex woke slowly on Christmas Eve, and got up even more slowly. The rest of the day was lost to seasonal movies and eating chocolates with Chowder and Farmer while the blizzard raged on outside. Dex fidgeted with his phone, but every time it buzzed it was another message from a group chat, and never any news from Nursey. It was good to know that Tango, Whiskey and Foxtrot were safely sipping hot chocolate at Tango's grandparents' house, and that Shitty was so delighted to say he couldn't get to his father's place for Christmas because of the snow outside the house he shared with Lardo, Ransom and Holster. As Dex stared at pictures of the homemade soup Bitty had cooked up for Jack and a couple of the Falcs rookies, he felt he had never been so disappointed to know how his friends were getting on. None of them were the person he really wanted to know about. 

> **Derek Nurse**  
>  11:21am  
>  Dex: Morning! How did you sleep?  
>    
>  1:48pm  
>  Dex: Any news on flights?  
>    
>  3:19pm  
>  Dex: Are you okay?  
>    
>  4:56pm  
>  Dex: Derek?  
>    
>  7:01pm  
>  Dex: I love you. Let me know what's going on as soon as you can.  
> 

He was surprised by how few movies it took before they were tired and hungry and desperately searching for a takeout place that would deliver despite the snow. It was nearly ten o’clock by the time they got their Thai curries, but they sent the delivery girl away with double tips for venturing out. Dessert was another piece of pie, leaving just one slice left for if Nursey did make it after all. Dex didn’t have high hopes, but he still wasn’t going to let Chowder touch it. 

Tired despite the day’s inactivity, Dex slumped against Chowder’s arm to watch Die Hard. Farmer chirped Chowder for having never seen any Die Hard movies, and fed all of them peanuts, but it wasn’t enough to keep Dex’s eyes from drooping. 

“But why is he-” 

“Come on, Tango, just watch the damn movie.” 

“Cait,” Chowder whined. Dex shuffled to find a more comfortable position on Chowder’s shoulder. 

“You’re going to wake Dex up.” 

“M’awake,” Dex muttered. 

“Barely,” Farmer retorted. 

_“I just don’t think killing is the answer.”_ The fact that Chowder had dropped his voice to a whisper made Dex smile. 

“It’s called Die Hard. What did you expect?” 

“When you said-” Chowder started in his normal tone of voice, but he quickly lowered it again. _“Shit. Sorry, Dex. When you said it was a Christmas movie, I thought it was going to be about a sort of ride or die friendship.”_

* * *

For the second time in as many days, Dex woke to the sound of the front door. This time, at least, Chowder held him against his chest and stopped him from falling on the floor again. 

“Holy fuck,” Farmer hissed. “Who—” 

“We’re gonna be murdered,” Chowder said. 

Dex felt disoriented as he squinted around the room. The clock on the DVD player said that it was a few minutes before midnight. Nearly Christmas Day. “Maybe it’s Santa.” 

“You two. Oh my God.” Farmer got up. 

“Wait. Where are you going? Oh my God, Cait, you can’t-” 

She was already in the hallway, though, despite Chowder’s worries. 

“Caitlin?!” 

Farmer let out a squeak from out of view, and Dex tapped Chowder reassuringly on the arm. He grabbed the first weapon which came to hand - a plastic fork from one of the takeout boxes - and went to see who was there. 

“Oh my God.” 

The fork fell uselessly to the floor. 

Dex let out a gasp of relief as he skid across the hallway and threw his arms around Nursey. He pressed his face to the crook of Nursey's neck and breathed in snow and home and _Nursey_. His skin was cold and Dex wanted to laugh and cry at the same time because he was wearing one of his hipster sweaters and his favourite hat but no coat or scarf. It was so typical Nursey. 

"I didn't think you were coming," he said, though he wanted to admonish him for not dressing for the weather. "How are you here?" 

"I had to come. I missed you." 

When Dex sighed, he could feel his breath rolling warmly over Nursey's skin. It had been four months since Dex had come back to Samwell and left Nursey on his own in Grand Rapids. He had friends on his new AHL team, but it wasn’t the SMH, and Dex knew that he had been struggling with the change in dynamic. 

”I know you did, baby. I missed you too.” Nursey’s jaw was cold against Dex’s lips, and both of them shivered at the contact. “You’re much better than Santa.” 

Nursey snorted. “Were you going to stab Santa with a fork?” 

Heat spread to Dex’s ears as he looked down at the takeout fork. “Uh. _Well._ Anyway. How— I thought all the flights were cancelled.” 

”I had to do a non-direct to LaGuardia, via Fort Lauderdale and-” 

“You went to Florida to get from Michigan to Massachusetts?” 

“There wasn’t any snow in Florida, so the flights were okay, but I think this big storm over Pennsylvania was messing up the non-stops to New York, and New England was never going to happen.” 

Dex frowned. “I didn’t want you to have to spend more time flying.” 

“Well. I did anyway. Then mom drove me up here, because she’s got the SUV.” 

Dex lifted his head and squinted at Nursey, trying to figure out if that meant his mom was sat in the car. Nursey stared back then jerked his thumb to the door. “I… Should probably go and tell her to come inside.” 

_“Probably.”_

In the end it was Dex who trudged through the two-foot-deep snow over the Haus path so that he could get Nursey and his mom’s bags out the trunk of the SUV and refuse Mrs Nurse’s offer to go to a hotel. 

“You might not even get a hotel this time of night on Christmas Eve, especially if there’s other people whose flights were cancelled, and it’s better not to be driving in this more than you have to. Whiskey left his room tidy. You can sleep there. What about Derek’s ma?” 

“She’s thankful for a couple of days to herself.” 

Dex focused more than was really necessary on making his way up the porch steps, biting down on the response which popped into his mind. The Nurses didn’t celebrate Christmas, and it wouldn’t be strange for Anika to be home alone for what was, for her, just a regular Monday when she happened to not be working. 

They found Nursey, Chowder and Farmer in the kitchen, where Nursey was sat on the counter eating the last of the rhubarb pie as if it were a slice of pizza. Chowder jumped up as soon as they walked in the room. One look at his expression — unrestrained joy on seeing them — was enough to tell Dex that Nursey and Farmer had been mercilessly chirping him while he was outside. 

“Xo! Hi!” 

“Were you talking about Die Hard?” Dex asked Farmer, while Nursey’s mom gave Chowder a hug. Nursey’s snort answered his question sooner than Farmer’s nod. 

“Of course, Dex missed it when he fell asleep,” Farmer told Nursey. 

Dex groaned. “Don’t even,” he warned Nursey. 

Nursey hopped off the counter, knocking the pie dish into the sink where it clattered but thankfully stayed in one piece. “Babe. I didn’t say anything. I was going to suggest we go straight to bed.” 

Dex leaned into the kiss Nursey offered him. “Okay.” 

“As you’re so tired, even though I’m the one who spent the day travelling.” 

A grin spread across Dex’s face. “Fuck off. Did you like the pie?” 

“Yeah. Shame someone ate most of it.” 

“That was C.” 

“Hey!” Chowder protested. “We had the same amount.” 

Nursey pulled Chowder in for a hug, and then Farmer. “I love you both even if you did eat my Christmas present.” 

“That wasn’t your Christmas present,” Dex told him, as Farmer said, “You don’t celebrate Christmas.” 

Nursey ignored them in favor of turning to his mom and bending his head to kiss her on the cheek. “Good night, mom.” 

It had been two and a half months, or possibly nearly three, since Dex had last felt Nursey’s fingers wrap around his. They still felt familiar, even though his fingers were cold and he tugged a little too hard, like in his excitement to be together he had forgotten there was no need to rush. Dex smiled fondly at him, letting himself be pulled along. There was a time they wouldn’t have been able to have this. A time when Nursey still kept up his facade of chill around Dex. A time when Dex would have shied away from public hand-holding or making it obvious they were going to bed together. Now, Dex missed moments like this so much that it felt they should have always been a part of their relationship. 

Halfway up the stairs he remembered that he still hadn’t shown Nursey’s mom to Whiskey’s room. 

“Wait.” 

_“Will,”_ Nursey whined. When Dex tried to drop his hand, his grip tightened. 

“Your mom—” 

“Has been to the Haus before and knows where she’s going. And her and C are best friends, remember?” 

Nursey dragged Dex the last few feet, but he stopped in the doorway of their room. Dex folded his arms around Nursey’s waist and kissed the corner of his jaw. 

“I’m glad you’re home.” 

He felt Nursey’s Adam’s apple bob. He eased them forwards so that he could kick the door closed behind them, but didn’t say anything more as he waited for Nursey to find his words. 

“It’s not that I regret dropping out. I just miss this. The Griffins aren’t the same.” 

“You’ll find your people.” 

“They’re going to trade me.” 

It wasn’t that surprising, really, however much the words shocked Dex. Nursey clearly hadn’t been a good fit for Grand Rapids, and there had been trade rumors for a while. What did make Dex pause was the particular rumor he had heard just a few days earlier, of the Falconers and the Red Wings trying to make a deal. Poots, and a couple of other Falcs’ names had been mentioned, in exchange for one name on the Red Wings, and a lot of people had been speculating that Detroit had to offer up more to make the trade worth it. Dex had assumed that it would be a draft pick, and maybe that would still be a possibility, but— 

“Providence?” 

Nursey turned his head so that he could smile against Dex’s cheek. “It would technically be Portland. I can pretend to be you.” 

Dex swatted at his hand and they scuffled until they ended up collapsing onto the bed. “It’ll only be Portland if they send you back down to the farm team again. You don’t know they’ll do that. Unless you do? When did you find out?” 

“No. They didn’t say it would be the Goslings. They rang when I was in the car coming up here. So, uh. Happy holidays? I’m staying?” 

Dex planted his face in Nursey’s chest and let out a strangled cry. “You fucker. You waited this long to tell me? Fuck. You’re coming home. You’re— Shit, Jack’s going to be your captain again. Does he know? Does Bitty know? Oh my God, when—” 

“Yo, _breathe_.” 

Dex nodded and forced himself to take a couple of deep breaths. 

“I don’t think it’ll be long before it goes public, so if they don’t know by tomorrow morning I’ll tell them then. And I’ll have to meet with management sometime Tuesday. Falcs management. So after that I’ll know if I’m supposed to be looking for somewhere to live in Maine or Rhode Island.” 

Dex pressed his lips to Nursey’s temple. He wanted to ask him to move back into the Haus, but he knew that was neither practical nor realistic. The important thing was that they were able to be together to share this news, and that they were going to be a matter of drives or train rides away from each other again, instead of flights; at least when neither of them were on the road. As he peppered kisses over Nursey’s face, Dex let go of his latent worries about Nursey making too much effort to get to Samwell. Happiness filled him, and it was reflected in Nursey’s smile; his responding kisses; the crinkles of joy at the corners of his eyes. They both knew how much the Falconers meant to Jack, and hopefully Nursey would be able to find his place with them too, in a way he never had with the Griffins.

**Author's Note:**

> did I edit any of these winter extravaganza ficlets? no, I did not. Also, this is very late, RIP me, retail is wild this time of year.


End file.
